We help business owners define their options, evaluate the consequences, and make choices that will lead them to Success.

Thought For The Day –

Balance takes planning. It requires choice, being deliberate, and prioritizing. You can manage it all, if you want to.– Stephen CoveyArchive – Previous Daily Thoughts –

When you are right, you have no need to be angry. When you are wrong, you have no right to be angry.– Mahatma GandhiIn Memoriam:John Dean “Jeff” CooperThe Gunner’s Guru10 May 1920 - 25 September 2006Jeff Cooper was perhaps the greatest philosopher of the twentieth century. For example:“I recall a high school student back in my teaching days asking if the goals set forth by Kipling in the mighty poem "If" were not impossible. The response was not whether they were impossible but whether they are striven for. To set one's goals high is not an unreasonable position. That is what parents are for. It seems to me that the important thing in life is the production of outstanding people - whether we can do it or not. It is the attempt that makes the struggle worthwhile.

Jeff Cooper’s CommentariesVol. 14, No. 4 April/May 2006

Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. – Winston Churchill“One man has enthusiasm for 30 minutes, another for 30 days, but it is the man who has it for 30 years who makes a success of his life.” – Edward B. Butler, American scientistLive as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.– Mahatma GandhiNever let the fear of striking out get in your way.– Babe Ruth

The oil can is mightier than the sword." – Everett Dirksen, US SenatorThe times they are a changin'.– Bob DylanDemand Respect, or Expect Defeat.“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”– John WoodenIt is no use saying, “We are doing our best.”You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.– Winston S. Churchill__________________________The Second Ten CommandmentsAuthor Unknown

-Thou shall not worry, for worry is the most unproductive of all human activities.

-Thou shall not be fearful, for most of the things we fear never come to pass.

-Thou shall not cross bridges before you come to them, for no one yet has succeeded in accomplishing this.

-Thou shall face each problem as it comes - you can only handle one at a time anyway.

-Thou shall not take problems to bed with you, for they make very poor bedfellows.

-Thou shall not borrow other people's problems. They can better care for them than you can.

-Thou shall not try to relive yesterday for good or ill, it is forever gone. Concentrate on what is happening in your life and be happy now!

-Thou shall be a good listener, for only when you listen do you hear different ideas from your own. It is hard to learn something new when you are talking, and some people do know more than you do.

-Thou shall not become "bogged down" by frustration, for 90 percent of it is rooted in self-pity and will only interfere with positive action.

-Thou shall count thy blessings, never overlooking the small ones, for a lot of small blessings add up to a big one.________________________“A winner is someone who sets his goals, commits himself to those goals, and then pursues his goals with all the ability given him.”“Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.” – St. Francis De Sales

If the mind is to emerge unscathed from this relentless struggle with the unforeseen, two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to the truth; and second, the courage to follow this light wherever it may lead.– Carl von Clausewitz

"Nothing splendid has been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstances."– Bruce Barton“You never get a second chance to make a good first impression”“From time to time the Tree of Liberty must be refreshed by the blood of tyrants and patriots, for that is its natural manure"–Thomas JeffersonThe question is not “How far?” The question is, “Do you possess the constitution, the depth of faith, to go as far as is needed?”

All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.

"The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want." Ben Stein

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

"A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." – Walter Gagehot

"The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators." – Edward Gibbon

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution."– Albert Einstein“Education is what you get when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't."– Pete Seeger

“Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence.”

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”

“Some men see things as they are and say ‘Why?’ I dream things that never were and say “Why not’?”– George Bernard Shaw“Well done is better than well said.”– Ben Franklin

"For every failure, there is an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour."– Mary Kay Ash (Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics)"I do not know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know; The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve."– Dr. Albert Schweitzer

“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.”– Ronald E. Osborn

Be a good listener, for only when you listen do you hear different ideas from your own. It is hard to learn something new when you are talking, and some people might know more than you do.

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.– Will Rogers

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.– Abraham Lincoln

Some men dream of worthy accomplishments, while others stay awake and do them.Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek.– Mario Andretti

“When besieged by ambitious tyrants, I find a means of offense and defense in order, to preserve the chief gift of Nature, which is Liberty.” – Leonardo Da Vinci (an avowed pacifist, on why it is important to be prepared to go to war, even if you don’t want to.)I am only one, but still I am one.I cannot do everything, but still I can do something.I will not refuse to do the something I can do.– Helen Keller – (Blind & deaf as an infant, but became famous for her accomplishments; awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom)

Learn from the mistakes of others.You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.– Eleanor Roosevelt

“Leadership is about a delicate balance between pushing and guiding. The genuine leader leads. He mentors. He guides. He sets examples. He mediates, and he adjudicates. He makes decisions. But whatever else he does, he does not merely command.”– General George S. PattonIt is no profit to have learned well, if you neglect to do well.– Publius SyrusThere is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.– Christopher Morley (20th century American writer)

Chance favors the prepared mind.– Louis PasteurIt is nobler to declare oneself wrong than to insist on being right - especially when one is right.– Friedrich NietzscheTo be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge. – Benjamin Disraeli

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I pay more attention to what men do.– Andrew Carnegie

______________When College Hall at Oxford was built in 1386, the architect decided that the oak beams would eventually rot, so he planted oak trees to use as replacements. Sure enough, the time came and the trees were cut and used - 500 years later!

“Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence.”

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”“Our doubts are traitors,And make us lose the good we oft might winBy fearing to attempt– Shakespeare“What I have learned as I have matured... + I've learned that the people you care most about in life are taken from you too soon and all the less important ones just never go away. + I've learned that we are responsible for what we do, unless we are celebrities. + I've learned that you shouldn't compare yourself to others – they are more screwed up than you think. + I've learned that it takes years to build up trust, and it only takes suspicion, not proof, to destroy it.______________The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them – make them.”– George Bernard Shaw

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.– Edmund Burke

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.– Douglas Adams

If a man takes no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand– Confucius

May the happiest days of your past be the saddest days of your future.– Abraham Lincoln

This quote is attributed to an unknown general: When asked how wars were lost, he answered in just two words: "Too late"Too late:·Developing an effective strategy ·Understanding the enemy ·Getting enough resources·Being prepared A war can have a pretty defined result- win or lose. In business, the result may just be second-place, or fourth place, but it is still a loss if you don’t win.

Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.– Unknown

The first step towards victory is to position your idea so that your victory is everyone's victory.– Michael Warshaw

Do, or Do Not. There is no Try.– Yoda

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.– William Arthur Ward

Most time is wasted, not in hours, but in minutes. A bucket with a small hole in the bottom gets just as empty as a bucket that is deliberately kicked over.– Paul J. Meyer

You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there.– Yogi BerraThe difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.– Tom Clancy

We don’t have an eternity to realize our dreams – only the time we are here. – Susan Taylor